The present invention relates to techniques for reliably creating a large number of high-speed electrical connections between two circuits. More specifically, the present invention provides a variety of techniques for establishing such connections with a high cycle life while requiring a very low externally-created force to facilitate the connect-disconnect cycle.
With higher and higher parallelism required in high-speed electrical systems (e.g., semiconductor test systems), the sum total of the force necessary to establish connections between circuits is becoming difficult to overcome by mechanical means. In addition, the very nature of conventional interconnect schemes which are characterized by high contact forces and metal-on-metal abrasion results in relatively low cycle life due to the resulting damage to the noble metal plating on the electrical contacts.
It is therefore desirable to provide techniques for establishing high-speed connections which do not suffer from the aforementioned disadvantages.